UK Independence Party

Articles and resources
The UK Independence Party is a political party in the United Kingdom that is archly anti-european Union, despite contesting European Union seats. They are broadly right wing, said to draw their support from dissatisfied conservatives.

Leadership
Deputy leader of the UK Independence Party is Christopher Monckton, an odd choice for a party that claims to be democratic because Monckton is bereft of any power base not being elected to anything, and does not even have a seat in the House of Lords.

UKIP Leader in the House of Lords is Lord Pearson of Rannoch, the other UKIP lord is Lord Willoughy de Broke.

There is currently a contest for leadership of the UKIP as a whole, Nigel Farage has declared.

The Party contest elections at local, parliamentary and European level. They are most successful at European level where they now have 12 MEPs. They have never won a seat at Westminster.

At European Parliament UKIP is part of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy grouping of eurosceptic parties that includes Lega Nord

Policies
UKIP is anti European Union and anti immigration. It is Libertarian.

The UKIP manifesto states "UKIP accepts that the world's climate changes but we are the first party to take a sceptical stance on man-made global warming claims." They also call for a halt to all UK contributions to the IPCC, the UN Framework Convention and to UK contributions to any EU climate-change policy. They plan to freeze all state funding for scientific research into global warming. Another policy objective states "Encourage the development and use of renewable energy sources other than large-scale wind generators".

The UKIP is staunchly skeptical of climate change. At their Spring Conference in March 2010, the party leader Lord Pearson of Rannoch said "we must question the whole theory of man-made climate change." . The UKIP party website endoses the Manhattan Declaration on Climate Change which claims that CO2 is not a pollutant and "That human-caused climate change is not a global crisis. "

The UKIP's position on climate is (in the opinion of this writer) not just an invitation to ridicule for a political party to hold; but also an indicator of how skepticism of the science of climate change is being ideologically driven.

The UKIP also has a pro smoking and anti tobacco ban stance. It is listed as a supporter of The International Coalition Against Prohibition. UKIP MEPs Nigel Farage and Godfrey Bloom spoke at their conference in Brussels.

They have been described by British Prime Minister David Cameron as "fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists".

List of UKIP MEPs

 * Nigel Farage
 * Marta Andreasen
 * Stuart Agnew
 * Gerard Batten
 * Godfrey Bloom
 * John Bufton
 * David Campbell Bannerman
 * Derek Clark
 * Trevor Colman
 * William Dartmouth
 * Mike Nattrass
 * Paul Nuttall

There is one other UKIP MEP Nikki Sinclaire, who has withdrawn from the UKIP Party whip in the European Parliament.

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Godfrey Bloom
 * Christopher Monckton

External resources
UKIP Watch "a tool to monitor the activities (if any!) of UKIP MEPs." http://blog.ukipwatch.org/ UKIP introduces sceptical eco stance http://www.ukip.org/content/latest-news/1462-ukip-introduces-sceptical-eco-stance

External articles
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